The UN Security Council has formally condemned Israel’s assault on a flotilla carrying aid supplies to the Gaza Strip and called for an impartial investigation into the incident.
At least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the raid yesterday as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers, in international waters. Dozens more were wounded and taken to Israeli hospitals.
The flotilla – made up of the Mavi Marmara cruise ship and five other vessels – had left the coast of Cyprus on Sunday, aiming to deliver around 700 activists and 10,000 tonnes of aid supplies into Gaza yesterday in the biggest effort yet to break Israel's three-year blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel and Egypt tightened a blockade of Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas took power there in 2007. Israel says it allows about 15,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid into Gaza every week but the United Nations says this is less than a quarter of what is needed.
According to Israeli officials, commandos opened fire in self-defence after descending by winch from helicopters and boarding the Mavi Marmara from dinghies about 75 miles offshore and coming under attack. "They were mobbed. They were clubbed, they were beaten, stabbed," Mr Netanyahu said in Ottawa, where he was meeting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "There was even a report of gunfire and our soldiers had to defend themselves, defend their lives or they would have been killed."
However, some Israeli commentators expressed reservations about the operation, fearing it would leave Israel internationally isolated. Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, told the Guardian the situation could have been averted. "Definitely we made mistakes and in retrospect anything would have been better – including letting the boats reach Gaza," he said. This is something they already knew it was likely to happen as we can draw from what Yigal Palmor - an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman – said before the assault: "We can't win on this one in terms of PR; if we let them throw egg at us, we appear stupid with egg on our face. If we try to prevent them by force, we appear as brutes." So now we know they’d rather appear as brutes…as always?
According to a statement by the Free Gaza movement, Israeli troops rappelled on to the Mavi Marmara ship "under darkness of night" at about 4.30 am. They say the soldiers opened fire immediately after touching down on the deck. The IDF later releases a video it says shows naval personnel being attacked as they landed (and before firing) with stun grenades, fire bombs and metal poles.
This has sparked a wave of global condemnation and protests. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who ordered the recall of the country's ambassador to Israel, described the operation as "state terrorism" and said Israel had violated international law. "We are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism," he said.
Demonstrations against the Israeli actions were held in Belfast and Derry on Monday, as well as in many other cities around the world, which links to another issue in Northern Ireland: the Public Assemblies Bill. While it has been said to be an attempt to deal with the Parades issue, this kind of popular and spontaneous act of expression would be illegal. Let’s have a thought about this, does it make any sense? I don’t think so. What do youse think? Feel free to use our forum to express your opinion.
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